Spanish Television

This article reflects on the symbolic and material bases of multiculturalist ideology as it manifests itself in particular cultural practices taking place across the European Union (EU). To explore some of these dynamics, I focus my discussion on Babel, a Spanish public broadcasting production partially funded by the EU, which aims to promote intercultural dialogue through exposing viewers to different aspects of immigrants’ lives in Spain. The analysis highlights how, while explicitly endorsing multiculturalism and developing a pro-immigration stance, Babel’s stories also promote a restricted and restricting image of desirable immigrants. Thus, the show’s resignification efforts rely mostly on an implicit but systematic association between cultural similarity and economic productivity in its representations of acceptable immigrants. The article’s conclusion argues for the need to re-theorise the co-constitutive relationship between ‘cultural’ and ‘economic’ aspects of multiculturalist practices at large, as well as the specific shapes that they take in Western European societies.

This article evaluates the performance of public service broadcasters in the area of children's television in Italy and Spain. It asks: how distinctive is the output of public service children's channels? As core area of public service provision, children's television represents an important testing ground for wider debates about the distinctiveness of public service broadcasting in a digital age. Public broadcasters in Southern Europe have historically been more vulnerable to market pressure than their counterparts in continental and Northern Europe, and this is believed to have impacted negatively on their ability to maintain a distinctive public service profile. After engaging with debates on distinctiveness in order to develop a framework for the analysis, the article presents the results of a two-week analysis of the TV schedules of the main children's channels operating in the two countries. It finds evidence that in both countries the output of public service children's channels is distinctive to a degree, but also that there are important gaps in public service provision as well as some significant differences between the public service children's channels analysed.

Se recopilan, cuantifican, clasifican y caracterizan las 545 series y miniseries de ficción de producción española, emitidas
por los canales de televisión lineal, digital y las plataformas de vídeo bajo demanda, en el período 2000-2020. Se propone una metodología con un diseño mixto: cuantitativa y cualitativa. Se ha creado una base de datos que incluye los campos: año de estreno, formato, género, plataforma, canal, número de episodios y temporadas, duración y valoración. De esta manera se propone, por vez primera, una taxonomía que considera la caracterización completa del total de las ficciones seriadas españolas emitidas en España durante la era digital. Los resultados distinguen tres periodos por: el desarrollo de la ficción televisiva, la crisis económica de 2008, y la llegada de las plataformas de vídeo bajo demanda al país. Se concluye que las comedias han sido desbordadas por otros géneros mayoritarios, como los dramáticos o los policiales. La ficción de televisión se adapta a la nueva sociedad que las consume, retratando a través de temáticas novedosas sus debates sociales, sus miedos y sus aspiraciones. Se ha reducido su duración, mezclando unos géneros con otros y concediendo cada vez más presencia y protagonismo a personajes de mujeres en detrimento de los hombres.

This introduction makes an argument for the industrial and aesthetic convergence of the two media of cinema and television in Spain. It also introduces the eight chapters, in four pairs: city girls (Almodóvar's women, TV's urban women); TV genres (crime and workplace drama); transnational media (on euthanasia and via telenovela); and media convergence (auteur TV and sitcom cinema).

Este artículo presenta las conclusiones de una investigación sobre la audiencia social y la audiencia creativa en Twitter en España. El objetivo del proyecto es entender el nuevo comportamiento de la comunidad de usuarios de este espacio de microblogging durante la emisión de contenidos televisivos. Se trata, por tanto, de un estudio del manejo de dos, o más, pantallas simultáneamente (Twitter y Televisión o cualquier otro dispositivo que permita contemplar los programas de la TV). Se afronta con una metodología dual con técnicas cualitativas y cuantitativas procedentes de diversas áreas de conocimiento y se trata de una propuesta multidisciplinar. Entre los objetivos del proyecto se encuentra mostrar si es posible medir el número total de telespectadores por medio del flujo de tweets y describir cuáles son los líderes del debate de la televisión social.

This article analyzes the first local quality TV series shown in Spain, Telecinco's workplace drama Periodistas ('Journalists') 1998-2002. It gives accounts of general approaches to TV studies; the Anglo-American debate over 'quality'; the history of Spanish television and of Telecinco; before giving a detailed analysis of the production and press reception of the series and of a specimen episode. It argues finally that television drama is a vital medium intimately related to everyday life in Spain that should not be neglected by Hispanists.

Au cours des dernières décennies, un grand nombre de productions audiovisuelles à caractère mémoriel ont inondé les écrans de télévision espagnols, caractérisées par l'obsession télévisuelle pour l'évocation publique de la Transition politique espagnole et la mémoire de certaines de ses principales figures politiques. Ce phénomène constitue un vaste corpus d'émissions télévisées dont le caractère mémoriel prépondérant et la diffusion en prime-time permettent d'établir un authentique métarécit télévisuel largement diffusé et à forte projection sociale, en termes de construction médiatique de la mémoire publique de la Transition. Cet article, outre dresser la généalogie de ce récit télévisuel, s'intéresse à la mémoire publique de la Transition et tente de réfléchir aux conditions historiques de production et de diffusion de ses récits, ainsi qu'à l'analyse de ses formats, ses modes de représentation et ses mécaniques discursives.

Resumen. La televisión en España cambió para siempre el 25 de enero de 1990 con la llegada a las pantallas de los primeros canales privados. Hasta ese momento, la actualidad televisiva había estado controlada en exclusiva por un Ente Público (RTVE). El objetivo principal de la investigación, por tanto, es conocer cómo la liberalización del mercado audiovisual influyó en la estrategia de programación de los principales programas de actualidad (debates y entrevistas). La metodología empleada se basa en la realización de un análisis cuantitativo del contenido de las parrillas televisivas de España desde 1980 a 2010, así como el visionado de los espacios. Los resultados señalan cómo estos programas se convirtieron en pilares elementales de la estrategia de programación en toda la etapa de estudio. Además, la irrupción de las privadas supuso un cambio en el enfoque de estos títulos y sirvió para popularizar la actualidad política entre la ciudadanía.
[en] Evolution of the television programming of debates and interviews facing the Spanish audiovisual liberalization Abstract. Spanish television changed forever January 25th 1990 due to the arrival of the first private TV networks. To that day, current events on television had been controlled exclusively by a public entity (RTVE). The primary goal of this paper is to know how the liberalization of the audiovisual market influenced on the programming strategy of the main shows based on current events (consistent on debates and interviews). The method used in this paper consists on a cuantitative analysis of the content programming schedules of the Spanish most-viewed television networks from 1980 to 2010, as well as the viewing of those shows. The results show that these programmes became fundamental in the schedule strategies all along that period. Besides to that, the irruption of private TV stations implied a great change in the focus of these shows and helped the political current events becoming popular.

This article examines a unique case of format translation in quality television: Mexican free-to-air broadcaster Televisa's remake in 2015-16 of a period romance-cum-mystery series originally shown by the Spanish private network Antena 3. The article begins with an account of Copycat Television, Albert Moran's pioneering study of transnational remakes, which defines the format not as a blueprint but as a loose and expanding set of programme possibilities, and goes on to explore tensions around genre, TV ecology and audience in both countries and series. Offering a close account of production, reception and textual detail, the article demonstrates that the Mexican version of the format is at once more politicized and more romantic than the Spanish original. Finally, both productions, broadcast as they were at a time of rapid technological change in their respective audiovisual industries, attempt to create an imaginary national harmony that is projected into the past and yet adapted to new contemporary audiences. (A longer version of this article, including close analysis of episodes can be found as a chapter in my book Television Drama in Spain and Latin America.)

This article gives a general account of the science fiction series often acclaimed as the best in the history of Spanish television. It offers a close reading of the excellent book by Concepción Cascajosa Virino. And it identifies three key themes in the series: nationalism, novelty in a Spanish context, and trans media strategy.

The main goal of Canal + Spain was to reach a significant amount of subscribers by offering programming unavailable on other channels. Following the French programming model, Canal + adopted a logic of product differentiation and technological innovation. It featured two main types of content: a diverse roster of films, shown shortly after their theatrical release, and perhaps most importantly, the innovative broadcasting of live sports events, more specifically, football. This article focuses on sports programming in the beginning of Canal + Spain. First, it offers an account of the Spanish television landscape in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Then, it scrutinizes the arrival of commercial television within the Spanish mediascape, thus examining the launching of Canal + by paying attention to the specificity of the Spanish audiovisual market. Second, this essay analyzes the types of live sports broadcasts, focusing on football, in Canal + during the early 1990s in order to account for their importance in creating a unique kind of product designed to appeal to potential subscribers. More specifically, we will argue that live football broadcasts did not only attempt to establish a clear demarcation with the old-fashioned image and soundscapes of traditional television, but also aimed at culturally appealing to a urbanite, cultivated spectator, precisely the type of viewer Canal + tried to recruit in its early days. Therefore, we will discuss how technological excellence and spectacle became tools for the expression of specific cultural values. In short, Canal + offered a content and technology-driven " change of aesthetics " within the Spanish mediascape in the early 1990s.

El reporterismo en España cuenta con una profusa labor periodística y numerosos profesionales desplazados hasta los lugares donde surgen los hechos y desde los que son narrados. En un contexto de difusión democratizada, digital, ubicua, social y multipantalla, resulta necesario acercarse a la historia del periodismo de reportero en nuestro país, así como conocer la labor realizada para ponerla en valor. El presente artículo estudia la figura de Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo y la digitalización de su obra periodística llevada a cabo por TVE. Así mismo, rastrea su presencia en las principales redes y plataformas sociales justo antes y después de su fallecimiento.

The reporter journalism in Spain has a profuse journalistic work and many professionals displaced to the places where the events rise up and are narrated. In a context of democratized, digital, ubiquitous, social and multi-screen broadcasting, it is necessary to approach the history of reporter journalism in our country, and know the work done to bring it into value. This article studies the figure of Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo and the digitization of his journalistic work carried out by TVE. Also, is ascertained its presence in the main social networks and platforms before and after of his death.

In light of significant transformations in the television marketplace, audiences are getting progressively disconnected from public service media (PSM) and switching their time and attention to multiplatform companies instead. This study explores how potential audiences socially construct Spanish public television and how these perceptions are shaped by citizens' expectations toward multiplatform media companies. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 46 Spanish adults, our study shows that the social construction of Televisión Española (TVE) is influenced by positive and negative perceptions of its structure, content output, and pass performance, in what we theorize as the foundation of an inconsistent public television. We

La llegada de la televisión privada a España inicia un nuevo modelo de televisión caracterizado por la lucha por las audiencias, donde se priorizan los contenidos de entretenimiento. En este artículo, se pretende evidenciar cómo en este nuevo contexto se recuperan creadores y estrellas de gran éxito en el audiovisual del tardofranquismo que habían perdido centralidad mediática en los ochenta, entendidos como garantes de éxitos mayoritarios. En dicho fenómeno, distinguimos sobre todo dos tendencias: el reciclaje de profesionales polivalentes y la recuperación de profesionales simbólicamente exiliados. España se incorpora así a las lógicas globales de la televisión privada, con frecuencia hibridando géneros y formatos transnacionales con destacados referentes de marcado carácter nacional.

La producción de programas musicales en la televisión pública española (1990-2010): el auge del talent show Resumen. Este artículo tiene como objeto ofrecer un recorrido por la historia de la producción de los programas musicales en la televisión pública española durante el periodo 1990-2010. Con esta finalidad, se ha consultado el archivo histórico digital de Radio Televisión Española como fuente primaria. A continuación, se ha completado la información con el análisis de fuentes secundarias como las secciones televisivas de la prensa nacional, publicaciones especializadas en televisión y bases de datos online como IMDb. Siguiendo un método de investigación inductivo, las conclusiones derivadas del estudio cronológico de los datos confirman las hipótesis planteadas. Primero, que el género musical ha sufrido un proceso de transformación al hibridarse con otros tipos de contenidos como las variedades, el concurso o la telerrealidad, dando como resultado el talent show contemporáneo. Y segundo, que la oferta de musicales de la televisión pública española no difiere en gran medida de la programada por los principales operadores privados, especialmente en la franja de máxima audiencia, dado su carácter comercial. La apuesta de TVE por el talent show musical ha sido determinante en la evolución del género musical en la televisión española. Palabras clave: Televisión pública; programas musicales; talent show; producción; programación. [en] The production of music TV shows in the Spanish public television (1990-2010): the rise of talent shows Abstract. The aim of this article is to offer a journey through the history of the production of musical programmes on Spanish public television during the period 1990-2010. For this purpose, the digital historical archive of Radio Televisión Española has been consulted as a primary source. Besides, the information has been completed with the analysis of secondary sources such as television sections of the national press, specialized publications on television and online databases such as IMDb. Following an inductive research method, the conclusions derived from this study confirm our hypotheses. Firstly, the musical genre has undergone a transformation process due to its hybridization with other types of content such as varieties, game shows or reality shows, becoming the current talent show. And secondly, the musical offer of the Spanish public television does not differ a lot from that programmed by the main private operators, especially in prime time. TVE's commitment to musical talent shows has been a cornerstone in the evolution of the musical genre in contemporary Spanish television. Sumario. 1. Introducción; 2. Metodología; 3. Evolución histórica de los programas musicales en TVE; 3.1. La década de los 90: no solo música; 3.2. El éxito del talent show: la televisión musical en el nuevo siglo; 4. Conclusiones; 5. Referencias bibliográficas. Cómo citar: Guerrero-Pérez, Enrique y Diego, Patricia (2020): " La producción de programas musicales en la televisión pública española (1990-2010): el auge del talent show". Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico 26 (2), 597-609.

La clave se estrenó en 1976 en TVE-2. Tras una primera temporada en la que el régimen controló la temática y el enfoque del primer título de debates en directo en TVE, José Luis Balbín creó un espacio multitemático en el que, durante más de 400 programas, se reunieron muchas de las figuras más importantes de la historia actual. El centro político, representado en los partidos de Unión de Centro Democrático y el Centro Democrático y Social, también estuvo muy presente. Esta investigación profundiza en el papel y evolución de los políticos pertenecientes a estas dos formaciones en la creación de José Luis Balbín durante sus casi nueve años en la parrilla de TVE. Los resultados demuestran que la participación de estos políticos en el programa estuvo relacionada con los distintos contextos político-audiovisuales y muestra los problemas internos del centro político.

Resumen. Este artículo propone el análisis exhaustivo del espacio La máquina de la verdad (Tele 5). En su desarrollo se aborda la singularidad del programa, que se convirtió en uno de los paradigmáticos de la telerrealidad en los años noventa, inscribiéndose en el imaginario colectivo y en la historia del medio televisivo español. Muestra de sus señas de identidad fueron los temas y los protagonistas: actuales, polémicos, con implicaciones judiciales; su puesta en escena; y el perfil de su presentador, Julián Lago. El formato se dividía en tres partes: el interrogatorio a una persona pública, que explicaba su versión sobre una polémica; el debate con invitados, que cuestionaban o apoyaban su relato; y el desenlace final, que comprobaba la veracidad de las respuestas del personaje monitorizado por un detector de mentiras. Esta estructura formal y el contenido temático polémico y efectista, consagraron al espacio como una referencia para programas sensacionalistas posteriores. Palabras clave: Telerrealidad; reality show; La máquina de la verdad; Tele 5; televisión; España [en] La máquina de la verdad: paradigm of the reality show TV on the first Spanish televisión in competition Abstract. This article proposes an in-depth analysis of Tv show La máquina de la verdad (Tele 5). Its development addresses the uniqueness of the program, which became one of the paradigms of reality tv in the 1990s, inscribed in the collective memory and the history of the Spanish television. A sign of his hallmarks were the themes and the protagonists: current-time celebrities, controversial, with judicial implications; its staging; and the profile of its presenter, Julian Lago. The format was divided into three parts: the interrogation of a public person, who explained his version of a controversy; the discussion with guests, who questioned or supported his account; and the final outcome, which checked the veracity of the responses of the character monitored by a lie detector. This formal structure and the effective and controversial thematic content, enshrined the program as a reference for subsecuent tabloid programs. Sumario. 1. Introducción. 2. Objetivos y metodología. 3. El inicio de la concurrencia televisiva española: coordenadas y contexto 4. La máquina de la verdad, programa televisivo de telerrealidad. 5. Los programas y sus protagonistas: ejemplos. 6. Conclusiones y discusión. 7. Referencias bibliográficas. Cómo citar: Mateos-Pérez, Javier (2020): "La máquina de la verdad: paradigma de la telerrealidad de la primera televisión española en competencia (1992-1994)". Estudios sobre el Mensaje Periodístico 26 (2), 655-664. 1. Introducción La máquina de la verdad, emitido en Tele 5 de no-viembre de 1992 a septiembre de 1994, fue un progra-ma dialógico inscrito en la primera generación de la te-lerrealidad española de los años noventa. Presentado y dirigido por el periodista Julián Lago, este espacio fue precursor en España de un modelo de televisión sensa-cionalista que proponía morbo, discusión y polémica recurriendo a la vida privada de personajes populares y a temas controvertidos asociados a los sucesos, los de-litos y a la crónica social. Este experimento catódico, que mezclaba el espectáculo televisivo con un pseu-doperiodismo de investigación, consiguió formar parte del imaginario colectivo español al llevar a la televi-sión retazos de una época marcada por la crispación política, social y económica después de alcanzar su cé-nit en el año 1992. Año significativo en España por la celebración de los Juegos Olímpicos de Barcelona, la Exposición Universal de Sevilla y los escándalos po-líticos del penúltimo gobierno de Felipe González. La novedad esencial que introdujo el programa tuvo que ver con la estrategia de emplear protagonistas, públi-cos y conocidos por la audiencia, para juzgarlos ante la opinión pública. Por este motivo, no es de extrañar que la travesía de La máquina de la verdad estuviera jalo-nada de polémicas de todo rango, que trascendieron a la pequeña pantalla y arribaron al debate público, a las redacciones de los periódicos de referencia e incluso a las salas de justicia.

This article offers a survey of cinema and television during the Spanish Transition to democracy. It makes four observations: that industrial factors must be considered with formal or ideological ones; that far from colluding in a 'pact of oblivion' cinema in the period is intimately engaged with history; that cinema is inextricable from television, a medium vital for historical memory but often neglected; and finally that screen narrative must be examined in formal terms, as well for its content. The case studies of the article are Víctor Erice's much praised art movie El espíritu de la colmena and Antonio Mercero's much loved TV series Crónicas de un pueblo, both of which contain key scenes of rural pedagogy in the Francoist period.

This article examines two recent Spanish television texts which depict Picasso and his masterpiece Guernica. It argues that 'Genius Picasso', in traditional biopic style, reduces the political to the personal, while 'El Ministerio del Tiempo', in a more positive version of TV pedagogy, reinserts the personal into the political, framing the painting as part of the collective narrative of democracy lost and regained in Spain.

This articles examines the multimedia practice of two young gay creators in Spain, known by the diminutive of their common first name as 'los Javis'. It analyzes La llamada (Holy Camp), a successful theater musical and, later, feature film, and Paquita Salas, a mock documentary comedy series picked up by Netflix. It argues that the Javis' practice constitutes a new kind of queer auteurism that combines heritage and social media, while appealing to past Spanish auteurs, most especially Pedro Almodóvar and Francoist religious film.

This edited volume examines the historical, political, cultural, and aesthetic implications of re-visiting Restoration Spain (1874-1931) in television costume dramas produced since 2000. Contributors analyze, from different theoretical approaches and disciplinary perspectives, the appeal that the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries hold for twenty-first-century Spanish audiences, as well as for international viewers who consume these programs through new media platforms. Themes and issues explored include: the production of televisual heritage, representations of period technologies, evolving constructions of gender, hybridization of television genres, and television as historian. Expanding the scope of inquiry in Spanish media studies, this collection seeks to bring Spain into wider discussions of media and historical representation and visual and material culture in Europe, the Americas, and beyond.

In this chapter, Tang examines the role of turn-of-the-century technologies within the narrative and staging of the international hit series Gran Hotel (Grand Hotel; Bambú Producciones, 2011-2013). As she argues, onscreen period technology serves to familiarize global audiences with Restoration Spain in three key ways: firstly, by refuting the long-standing stereotype of Spain as a historically backwards nation; secondly, by highlighting universally familiar themes of Restoration society, such as class conflict or the modernizing impulse; and finally, by appealing to twenty-first-century technophiles who recognize the importance of technological innovation in their own lives. Tang concludes that through these functions, the technology featured in Gran Hotel serves to present the Restoration period as a universally legible and visually appealing setting.  

RÉSUMÉ The starting point for the present work is the conviction that we can study the memory of undemo-cratic pasts from both a transnational and comparative perspective. Television series offer viewers an account of the passage of official history, through the prism of both the fictional characters and viewers' personal (emotional) relationships. In light of this, some elements are going to be investigated common to two television products, the first set during the Francoism (Cuéntame cómo pasó) and the second during Socialism (Vyprávěj), whose patent purpose is to depict how everyday life was under these repressive regimes. From a transnational point of view, the two TV series demonstrate the presence of at least one common narrative mode of undemocratic pasts, which goes beyond specific national features and characteristics. The specific elements mentioned in this work (the narrator as re-affirmation of the guide-values, the family as a synecdoche for the community that remembers , the television as the 'memory medium', and the emotional recognition between audience and character as the mediation space with a 'problematic' past) can be interpreted as a possible first mapping of the different narrative modes that tend to be connected with the representation of un-democratic pasts in Europe. The present work aims to investigate the memory of undemocratic pasts in television series. The starting point for reflection is the conviction that — however diverse individual instances of course are — we can study certain recurring elements in the memory of undemocratic pasts from both a transnational and comparative perspective. While political science literature includes numerous studies on the transition from undemocratic to democratic regimes in both European 'blocs' (the Western bloc, with transitions in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain; the Eastern bloc with its various post-communist transitions, including that of the Czech Republic), from a cultural studies perspective, it seems that the study of repressive regimes and transitions to democracy continues to generate a binary iron curtain system. OPEN ACCESS

La presente comunicación examina cómo las televisiones generalistas de ámbito nacional se están adaptando a las potencialidades de internet y el uso que realizan de la Web como plataforma para difundir los contenidos informativos.

Los recientes rediseños de las páginas web de Antena 3 y TVE y las innovaciones de los sitios web de Tele 5, Cuatro y La Sexta indican que las televisiones españolas apuestan por la convergencia en la red y su potencial informativo. En un intento por sistematizar el actual ecosistema televisivo, la comunicación compara los servicios informativos online de cada una de las cadenas, con la finalidad de encontrar similitudes y diferencias y explorar las estrategias utilizadas.

Mediante un análisis de contenido se estudia cómo cada televisión aprovecha las características esenciales de la web: la multimedialidad, el hipertexto, la interactividad, el uso de contenidos generados por los usuarios y la inclusión de las redes sociales. Así mismo, se valora en qué medida las noticias se adaptan al lenguaje del soporte online o se mantiene la estructura básica propia de la televisión convencional.

This paper examines how Spanish television networks are adapting to the Internet’s potential and how they are using the Web as a platform to elaborate and distribute news content. The redesign of the leading commercial networks Telecinco´s and Antena 3’s websites and the launching of an online news service by public channel RTVE indicate that Spanish broadcasters are increasing their convergence with online operations and are developing stronger journalistic offerings. This paper compares the online news services in each of these three networks, with the objective of finding similarities and differences, as well as outlining their main strategies. Using a content analysis methodology, the essential characteristics of online journalism are analysed in each website: multimedia, hypertext, interactivity, user-generated content and social networks. It is also enquired to what extent the journalistic content available in these websites is adapted to the online language or it rather maintains the basic audiovisual structure of conventional television narrative. The production of television and online news also shows an increasing level of newsroom integration in these media. Journalists’ changes in the working systems and routines, as well as their attitudes towards converged news production are explored, with particular emphasis on how it might influence the quality of their journalistic output.